Transverse momentum versus multiplicity fluctuations in high-energy nuclear collisions

We discuss recently measured event-by-event fluctuations of transverse momentum and of multiplicity in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. It is shown that the non-monotonic behavior of the p_T-fluctuations as a function of collision centrality can be fully explained by the observed non-monotonic multiplicity fluctuations. A possible mechanism responsible for the multiplicity fluctuations is also considered.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, revised & extended, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Primary results of 2-dimensional electrophoresis for protein studies of Gentiana kurroo Royle somatic embryos derived from long-term embryogenic cell suspensions

Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis was used to compare protein expression profiles between various stages of Gentiana kurroo Royle somatic embryos. Seven distinct stages (I–VII) were pointed out and measured from long-term embryogenic cell suspension. Isoelectric focusing was done in the pH intervals 3–10, and the second dimension was carried out with 13% SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Dependent on the stage from about 400 (stage IV) to more than 700 (stage II) protein spots were totally detected. The molecular weight of abundant proteins range from 12 to 70 kDa, however, majority of proteins were located between 20–49 kDa spots on the gels. The highest difference in the number of spots appeared in the case of globular embryo (stage I) and elongated cotyledonary stage (stage VII) with differences being about 130 spots. The relevance of embryogenic cell suspension choice for proteomic analysis as well as expediency of the increasing number of particular embryo stages is discussed

Primary results of 2-dimensional electrophoresis for protein studies of Gentiana kurroo Royle somatic embryos derived from long-term embryogenic cell suspensions

Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis was used to compare protein expression profiles between various stages of Gentiana kurroo Royle somatic embryos. Seven distinct stages (I–VII) were pointed out and measured from long-term embryogenic cell suspension. Isoelectric focusing was done in the pH intervals 3–10, and the second dimension was carried out with 13% SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Dependent on the stage from about 400 (stage IV) to more than 700 (stage II) protein spots were totally detected. The molecular weight of abundant proteins range from 12 to 70 kDa, however, majority of proteins were located between 20–49 kDa spots on the gels. The highest difference in the number of spots appeared in the case of globular embryo (stage I) and elongated cotyledonary stage (stage VII) with differences being about 130 spots. The relevance of embryogenic cell suspension choice for proteomic analysis as well as expediency of the increasing number of particular embryo stages is discussed

Cryopreservation enhances embryogenic capacity of Gentiana cruciata (L.) suspension culture and maintains (epi)genetic uniformity of regenerants

The embryogenic cell suspension culture of Gentiana cruciata, cryopreserved by the encapsulation/dehydration method, survived both short- (48 h) and long-term (1.5 years) cryostorage with more than 80% viability. To assess the influence of cryotreatments on the embryogenic potential, a proembryogenic mass was encapsulated and exposed to the following treatments: (1) osmotic dehydration (OD), (2) OD + air desiccation (AD) and (3) OD + AD + cryostorage (LN). The somatic embryogenesis efficiency increased ten times after osmotic dehydration. The AD and LN cryotreatments did not cause any significant alterations in somatic embryo production. We monitored the (epi)genetic stability of 288 regenerants derived from: non-cryotreated, short-term, and long-term cryostored tissue using metAFLP markers and ten primer combinations. Changes in the sequence and DNA methylation levels were studied by subjecting the DNA to digestion with two pairs of isoschisomer restriction enzymes (KpnI/MseI and Acc65I/MseI). Two new AFLP unique DNA fragments at the DNA sequence level, with no differences at the methylation level, were found between regenerants derived from cryopreserved tissue, compared with the non-cryotreated controls. The Acc65I/MseI methylation levels for the three groups of regenerants were not significantly different. Cluster analysis was capable of identifying a number of sub-clusters. Only one of the sub-clusters comprises almost all regenerants derived from non-cryotreated and short-term cryostored tissue. Plantlets derived from long-term cryostored tissue were grouped into separate clusters. The observed AFLP alterations did not appear to be associated with the use of cryopreservation, but were probably related to the process of in vitro culture

Can Centauros or Chirons be the first observations of evaporating mini black holes?

We argue that the signals expected from the evaporation of mini black holes - predicted in TeV-scale gravity models with large extra dimensions, and possibly produced in ultra high energy collisions in the atmosphere - are quite similar to the characteristics of the Centauro events, an old mystery of cosmic-ray physics.Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX, one Table, uses rotate.sty and rotcapt.sty. References added, typos corrected, footnotes moved into the tex

A simple way to overcome the recalcitrance of the water fern Ceratopteris thalictroides (L.) Brongn. to cryopreservation

Ceratopteris thalictroides is a water fern very sensitive to both dehydration and low temperature. This study focuses on the cryopreservation of this species by encapsulation-dehydration technique, in particular on the effects of pre-culture step, alginate bead size and the physical conditions of culture on the cryopreservation efficiency. Encapsulated and non-pre-cultured gametophytes did not survive cooling with liquid nitrogen. When cryopreservation was preceded by a 2-week period of pre-culture, regrowth reached 42.1%. Reduction in the size of the alginate bead, and culture in total darkness resulted in improved gametophyte regrowth capacity (75.5% or 81.7%, respectively). The best results (91.3%) were obtained when all factors tested occurred simultaneously. The gametophytes recovered very quickly and sporophytes were formed within 4 weeks after rewarming. These simple improvements can be used, not only for the cryopreservation of gametophytes in cryptogams but also for some recalcitrant species of seed plants

Single-freeze-out model for ultra relativistic heavy-ion collisions at sNN=2.76\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=2.76 TeV and the LHC proton puzzle

The single-freeze-out model with parametrized hypersurface and flow geometry is employed to analyze the transverse-momentum spectra of hadrons produced in the Pb+Pb collisions at the collision energy of {$\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=2.76$ TeV} at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). With the notable exception for protons and antiprotons, we find a very good agreement between the model results and the data for the measured hadron species. The additional analysis of the HBT radii of pions helps us to select, from several different types of freeze-out studied in this work, the most realistic form of the freeze-out hypersurface. We find that discrepancy ratio between the model and experiment for the proton/antiproton spectra depends on $p_T$, dropping from 2 in the soft region to 1 around $p_T=1.5$ GeV.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figure

Locally anisotropic momentum distributions of hadrons at freeze-out in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

A spheroidal anisotropic local momentum distribution is implemented in the statistical model of hadron production. We show that this form leads to exactly the same ratios of hadronic abundances as the equilibrium distributions, if the temperature is identified with a characteristic transverse-momentum scale. Moreover, to a very good approximation the transverse-momentum spectra of hadrons are the same for isotropic and anisotropic systems, provided the size of the system at freeze-out is appropriately adjusted. We further show that this invariance may be used to improve the agreement between the model and experimental HBT results.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

On the possibility of q-scaling in high energy production processes

It has been noticed recently that transverse momenta (p_T) distributions observed in high energy production processes exhibit remarkably universal scaling behaviour. This is the case when a suitable variable replaces the usual p_T. On the other hand, it is also widely known that transverse momentum distributions in general follow a power-like Tsallis distribution, rather than an exponential Boltzmann-Gibbs, with a (generally energy dependent) nonextensivity parameter q. Here we show that it is possible to choose a suitable variable such that all the data can be fitted by the same Tsallis distribution (with the same, energy independent value of the q-parameter). Thus they exhibit q-scaling.Comment: Final version, accepted by J.Phys.